Destination Moon (1950)

Another early spaceflight film, more scientifically grounded than Rocketship
X-M (1950) which appeared the same year. Technicolor and fine art direction
make it more vivid than many classic SF films. One of Robert A. Heinlein's few
screenwriting credits from that period.

We don't yet have atomic rockets, and the spaceship belongs to a consortium of
industrialists, but the movie is prophetic in other ways:

that the space race would be part of the arms race.

that the first moonwalk would be broadcast; here they are interviewed on the
radio, in our reality they had to endure congratulations by President Nixon
(but were on TV!)

the moon is claimed by the US, but on behalf of "all mankind".

If you are an SF reader of a certain age, the nostalgia rush is strong in this
one. All the aspects of early spaceflight are explained and meticulously
presented: the exciting countdown and launch with high-G forces,
weightlessness, and a space walk and rescue.

Chesley Bonestell's lunar landscapes are gorgeous. He was an important figure
of the decade when rockets had wings and space stations were giant rotating
wheels. In his books Heinlein used "bonestelling" as a verb for a type of
artistic rendering.

On the down side we have the usual comic crewman with a Brooklyn accent. The
last act has a dumb premise: that they won't have enough fuel to get home
unless they lighten the built-like-a-battleship rocket by 110lbs. This is an
SF movie cliche: they do the same thing in Sunshine (2007); there it is
lack of atmosphere in a vast craft with gymnasium sized compartments.

Note the only real rocket footage they have is of a captured German V2. There
weren't any others for a while.

It makes me want to read Heinlein's Rocket Ship Galileo again, one of
his young adult novels from that period, a similar story on a smaller scale: a
scientist and three teenagers build a rocket from surplus parts and fly it to
the moon. They think they are the first, but discover a secret Nazi base. What
do you suppose they do about that?